Answering "why do you want to relocate?" during interviews • Hacker News Board

Re: Answering "why do you want to relocate?" during interviews

#21

Post by Aurornis » Wed, Jul 08, 2026, 4:29 PM UTC

ElevenLathe wrote: post #14

Aurornis wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’ve done a number of interviews in my career. You don’t have to be a genius to see through the candidates who play this game where they tell you a perfectly sanitized, idyllic response that they’ve calculated as the optimal phrasing that you want to hear. A lot of applicants do it. The skill of interviewing is to get a sense of what the true situation is underneath what the candidate is saying with their words. Thes…

Right, it's game of pretending that you sincerely desire these things. They don't want a faker, they want a true believer, and they have plenty of skillful people like you to use as tools to suss out who is and who isn't. To stick with the merchandise analogy, you must (sometimes) become like the "outlet" stores who fill their inventory with junk designed to be sold cheaply rather than marked down high end stuff. Thi…

> They don't want a faker, they want a true believer

I'm trying to explain that it's easy to spot the fakers.

When you do a lot of interviews you see a lot of candidates who follow the advice above. Unless it's your first month of doing interviews, it's really easy to see right through.

The candidates never think they're coming off as fake, though.

Really skilled interviewers can bait these candidates into telling little half-truths and inconsistencies that reveal their game.

Re: Answering "why do you want to relocate?" during interviews

#22

Post by Kirby64 » Wed, Jul 08, 2026, 4:33 PM UTC

Aurornis wrote: post #17

Kirby64 wrote: post #15

Maybe I just haven't met these engineers, but isn't the problem usually "I don't want to relocate" ? Who talks about relocating as if that's the primary motivation for a job?

You would be surprised. A large number of resumes for every job posted are from people outside of the area who want to move there for different reasons. Most people want to have a job set up before they move to a new city.

> Most people want to have a job set up before they move to a new city.

This is obvious for most people... generally a bad financial idea to move to a new city without a job. But, primarily taking a job just to move to a new city seems odd to me. I guess I just prioritize a job I want to work at over a city I live in.

Re: Answering "why do you want to relocate?" during interviews

#23

Post by Aurornis » Wed, Jul 08, 2026, 4:34 PM UTC

threatofrain wrote: post #18

Aurornis wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’ve done a number of interviews in my career. You don’t have to be a genius to see through the candidates who play this game where they tell you a perfectly sanitized, idyllic response that they’ve calculated as the optimal phrasing that you want to hear. A lot of applicants do it. The skill of interviewing is to get a sense of what the true situation is underneath what the candidate is saying with their words. Thes…

A no-op is exactly what the candidate wants. The candidate wants to be judged on their skills which are transferable from job to job. There's nothing to "see through" here which is precisely why it's a no-op.

> A no-op is exactly what the candidate wants. The candidate wants to be judged on their skills which are transferable from job to job.

The interview is to determine their skills.

Some candidates will talk about their work history for 30 minutes and you leave the room with no real idea what they did. They tell you they created synergies and did cross-functional coordination with stakeholders in a metrics-driven blah blah blah. You receive no usable information about what they did, what they can do, or how much of the thing they talked about was due to their work. All you know is that they can talk a lot.

If they're applying to a dysfunctional vibes-based workplace then delivering an empty vibes-based interview can work. Smart people actively try to filter themselves out of those companies, not into them.

Re: Answering "why do you want to relocate?" during interviews

#24

Post by Aurornis » Wed, Jul 08, 2026, 4:37 PM UTC

Kirby64 wrote: post #22

Aurornis wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You would be surprised. A large number of resumes for every job posted are from people outside of the area who want to move there for different reasons. Most people want to have a job set up before they move to a new city.

> Most people want to have a job set up before they move to a new city. This is obvious for most people... generally a bad financial idea to move to a new city without a job. But, primarily taking a job just to move to a new city seems odd to me. I guess I just prioritize a job I want to work at over a city I live in.

> I guess I just prioritize a job I want to work at over a city I live in.

Most people don't prioritize work over everything else. They move toward the life they want and try to find a job that supports it.

People move to be closer to friends and family or to be in a city they like more.

A lot of applicants requesting relocation were moving because their spouse got a job in the city and they had to move, too.

Re: Answering "why do you want to relocate?" during interviews

#25

Post by ElevenLathe » Wed, Jul 08, 2026, 4:38 PM UTC

Aurornis wrote: post #21

ElevenLathe wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right, it's game of pretending that you sincerely desire these things. They don't want a faker, they want a true believer, and they have plenty of skillful people like you to use as tools to suss out who is and who isn't. To stick with the merchandise analogy, you must (sometimes) become like the "outlet" stores who fill their inventory with junk designed to be sold cheaply rather than marked down high end stuff. Thi…

> They don't want a faker, they want a true believer I'm trying to explain that it's easy to spot the fakers. When you do a lot of interviews you see a lot of candidates who follow the advice above. Unless it's your first month of doing interviews, it's really easy to see right through. The candidates never think they're coming off as fake, though. Really skilled interviewers can bait these candidates into telling li…

You're explaining that you think you do a good job of spotting the fakers. How would you know if you weren't? And anyway, the fakers (approximately everyone) don't have a choice but to be fakers, since the truth (I want this job because I want the money and visa it will confer) is disqualifying. Because no one is motivated primarily on the opportunity to work on adtech (to pick a popular example), one must choose one of:

1) Be truthful, and say the main reason you want the job is the money and the visa. You will be looked over as not having enough passion for the work.

2) Lie completely and say your number one motivation is adtech, something you would prostrate yourself to do in slum conditions if necessary. You will be sussed out as a faker.

3) Come up with some mixture of the two that the company can believe. If you can fool them into thinking you are at least somewhat motivated by the chance to work on their awful product, but also that there is truthfully some other motivation, you come across as a good bet and might not be thrown out of the pipeline.

Re: Answering "why do you want to relocate?" during interviews

#26

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Jul 08, 2026, 4:39 PM UTC

bluGill wrote: post #13

Aurornis wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’ve done a number of interviews in my career. You don’t have to be a genius to see through the candidates who play this game where they tell you a perfectly sanitized, idyllic response that they’ve calculated as the optimal phrasing that you want to hear. A lot of applicants do it. The skill of interviewing is to get a sense of what the true situation is underneath what the candidate is saying with their words. Thes…

I suspect a lot of interviewers think it is a good thing when someone repeats those lines. That is they are not trying to get under the words.

[deleted]

Re: Answering "why do you want to relocate?" during interviews

#27

Post by Kirby64 » Wed, Jul 08, 2026, 4:48 PM UTC

Aurornis wrote: post #24

Kirby64 wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Most people want to have a job set up before they move to a new city. This is obvious for most people... generally a bad financial idea to move to a new city without a job. But, primarily taking a job just to move to a new city seems odd to me. I guess I just prioritize a job I want to work at over a city I live in.

> I guess I just prioritize a job I want to work at over a city I live in. Most people don't prioritize work over everything else. They move toward the life they want and try to find a job that supports it. People move to be closer to friends and family or to be in a city they like more. A lot of applicants requesting relocation were moving because their spouse got a job in the city and they had to move, too.

I see it a little different. I'm not saying I prioritize work over everything else, I just see them as almost unrelated. The location is a filter, not a motivation. For various reasons, I wouldn't ever choose certain cities to live in and there's very few reasons a job would overcome that (I guess if you gave me enough money that would make me reconsider... but it's a pretty high bar that is likely unreasonable).

Meanwhile, if your spouse is moving for a job, it seems bizarre that a response on "why do you want to relocate" wouldn't just be some form of "my spouse got a job here, so I will be living here now".

Re: Answering "why do you want to relocate?" during interviews

#28

Post by chris_j » Wed, Jul 08, 2026, 4:58 PM UTC

I take a different view. For a lot of candidates that I've interviewed in recent years, they made the decision to move to London, and _then_ decided to apply to us. Some of the best engineers that I've worked with have joined that way, and many of them stuck around for a long time. Of course the candidate should show an interest in the company. But frankly, if you're an employer in a place that people want to move to, that's something that you should be taking advantage of, not complaining when the candidate is honest about it.

Re: Answering "why do you want to relocate?" during interviews

#29

Post by harshalizee » Wed, Jul 08, 2026, 5:05 PM UTC

Aurornis wrote: post #12

ElevenLathe wrote: post #3

The advice can be generalized even more. When communicating with an employer or potential employer: -> Subordinate yourself to the desires of capital in all areas. -> Suppress the self. -> Become a true human resource. You are seeking to sell a large chunk of your life, and the buyers don't want scratched or dented goods. Desires of your own are flaws in the product you are selling. This is, sadly, sound advice, but…

I’ve done a number of interviews in my career. You don’t have to be a genius to see through the candidates who play this game where they tell you a perfectly sanitized, idyllic response that they’ve calculated as the optimal phrasing that you want to hear. A lot of applicants do it. The skill of interviewing is to get a sense of what the true situation is underneath what the candidate is saying with their words. Thes…

Then you shouldn't be asking those questions in the first place.

Why do you want a job?, Why do you want to relocate?, Why do you want to work here?, etc. are BS "no-op" questions that are not relevant to the skills that they are promoting.

If an interviewer asks these types of questions, they are literally showcasing that this part of the interview is a BS "Subordinate yourself to the desires of capital in all areas" conversation. You will predictably get the "no-op" answers you asked for.

The interviewer always sets the tone of the meeting. You can't complain when they chose to play along. If you want a real conversation, you need to make it amply clear.

Re: Answering "why do you want to relocate?" during interviews

#30

Post by soco » Wed, Jul 08, 2026, 5:15 PM UTC

Aurornis wrote: post #8

This is very good, practical advice. I would go even further and say that you shouldn’t even allow yourself to get into a position where you need to manipulate your answers to interviewers for this question. If the primary reason you want a job is for the relocation, you might be signing up for a job you don’t even like! I’ve been part of a small number of hiring decisions where relocation was involved. There were a…

What are for you the right reasons for taking a job? Most teams will have enough common sense and healthy relationships to offer something workable, also most software products are a piece of whatever - be it insurance front-ends or package sorting algorithms. I mean yes there will be outliers both ways, like a toxic environment which the candidate can hopefully spot during the talks, or your particular product can spark real passion in people (not likely). But speaking for myself I've never spotted a toxic environment (also never landed in one either) and for the few positions where I was really passionate about they didn't care about my passion. So your comment reads like a lot of theory, or ten-thousand-feet-view if you want, while the candidate reality is that the only stuff which really matters is how good you lie about alignment.